Ed Sheeran Blasts to New Spotify Record for One-Day Streams

Ed Sheeran’sreturn has been an immediate success with both of his new releases shattering Spotify’s record for one-day streams.

Sheeran’s “Shape of You” was played 6,868,642 times after it dropped last Friday, according to his record company Warner Music, while its counterpart “Castle On The Hill” was listened to 6,168,395 times. That’s 13 million plays in one day, or roughly half-a-million listens each hour.

Both songs blow away Spotify’s previous milestone set by One Direction's "Drag Me Down," which had 4,759,698 plays back in July 31 2015. 1D’s hit broke the previous best set by Wiz Khalifa’s "See You Again," which was streamed 4.26 million times on April 17, 2015.

Sheeran’s two comeback singles reached more than 25.8 million global Spotify streams in 48 hours, and its accompanying lyric videos enjoyed more than 10 million combined hits on YouTube in the first 24 hours, a feat which represents his fastest-ever video launches, the music major notes.

It's not the first time Sheeran has established a new high-mark on Spotify. "Thinking Out Loud" (off his sophomore album x) in 2015 became the first song on the music service to hit 500 million streams.

“Shape of You,” which the 25-year-old co-wrote with Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac (who also produces) and “Castle On The Hill” (written by Sheeran and Benny Blanco, with Blanco on production duties), are Sheeran’s first new recordings since 2015. Both tunes launched to the top of the Billboard + Twitter Trending 140 chart Friday morning.

The new songs are slated to appear on his latest album ÷, pronounced “divide.” Sheeran has yet to announce a release date for the album.